Category: sermon

WE ARE … watching for his return

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We have been exploring the ideas expressed in our church identity statement. We, as a church identify ourselves as “an open family of believers seeking to follow Jesus Christ and live out His teaching while we watch for his return.”

Identity statements like that are important for churches because they summarise ideas which we can band together behind. They also serve to help us decide the kinds of things we as a church should be doing, and what kinds of things we do not have to do.

I particularly appreciate the last phrase in our identity statement because it shows our expectation of what the scripture calls the blessed hope – the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Here is the day’s text:

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, 5 for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind– 6 just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you– 7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8 He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Corinthians 1:3-9).

I had a number of texts to choose from, because the New Testament has a lot to say about the promise of Christ’s return. But I chose this text, because it is one which is probably not used very much, but it definitely relates to the topic.

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When we preach about the second coming, there are about five “usual suspects” that we round up.

The story of the ten bridesmaids is a helpful passage, because it shows that some people who think they are ready are not ready. It is a call to be authentic, and to be really prepared, not just to look prepared. You may recall that in the story all ten bridesmaids expected to be invited to the wedding, but five were not really prepared for the long wait before the bridegroom came.

I also like the warning that Jesus gave us when he described his second coming as a trap. He said “34 But be on your guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day close down upon you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will overtake all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 But stay alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that must happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Luke 21:34-36 NET.

He also described his second coming like a burglar who comes at night. Back in Jesus’ day, people would bring their valuables (including their animals) into their homes at night. They would sleep up in a loft, or on the roof of their houses. Burglars would wait until the wee hours of the morning, burst into the homes and make off with the loot. Jesus used the story to express the same kind of warning as the previous passage: Don’t get caught unprepared for the second coming.

Another favourite passage for preaching about the return is the Olivet Discourse, also called the eschatological discourse, where Jesus answers three questions about his return. One of the questions that his disciples asked was how long it would be until the end of the age. Jesus told his disciples that a number of signs would occur over and over again, like contractions in a birth. His point was that those signs are not proof that his coming was soon, because the signs would keep coming over and over, like contractions during labour.

There was another set of signs that Jesus gave during the same discourse. These signs identified a more immediate group of events, particularly identifying the date of the return. So, while Jesus did say that no one would ever know the day or the hour, we would always be able to identify the season when Jesus could return. It would be just as obvious as when a fig tree spouts all its leaves. Anyone looking at world events today can clearly see that the season is right for Jesus’ return.

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But I want us to focus today on the 1 Corinthians text today because it shows that there are some other reasons why believers should be watching for Christ’s return. Firstly, it talks about our being called into fellowship with Jesus. Now, what exactly does that mean?

In Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, a group of people were called together into a fellowship for the purpose of destroying a powerful ring. In spite of the differences in the people, it was the singular purpose of the fellowship that united them.

But there is something even more significant here. Paul is saying that every born-again believer is called into fellowship with Jesus Christ. We are called to be where Jesus is. But that does not happen yet. We are bound on this planet, and Jesus is with his Father in heaven. That poses a severe problem for fellowship. Some have suggested that when believers die, they go to be with the Lord in heaven. That would be a solution to the problem. But that is not the solution that the apostle Paul gave. He taught that Jesus is going to come back to earth – literally and physically. Then we can be a fellowship again.

His point in today’s text is that we are promised a permanent fellowship with Christ. So, he has to come back to fulfil that promise.

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And there is yet another reason why Jesus has to come back. Paul notes the fact that the Corinthian Christians have been enriched by the grace of God. In other words, God has invested himself in the Corinthian Christians. The same is true for all Christians everywhere. God has begun an investment in us. It only makes sense for him to complete that investment.

Let me put it this way. Suppose (and I’m really going out on a limb here) I had invested a million dollars in a company. Do you think I would just walk away from that company, and let its leaders do whatever they want with the money I invested? Of course not. I would be making a nuisance of myself, always wanting to be involved in the company’s business because I am so heavily invested in the company. The future of the company would be my business.

Now, God has invested the life of his only Son in us. He has also given us the Holy Spirit who reveals his truth to us and empowers us for ministry. He’s not going to drop everything and go off and play in a distant galaxy for eternity. Jesus is coming back, and we know that because of what he has already done for us.

This is how Paul described this reality to the Ephesian Christians: “For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and unblemished in his sight in love. 5 He did this by predestining us to adoption as his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will– 6 to the praise of the glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8 that he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight. 9 He did this when he revealed to us the secret of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10 toward the administration of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ–the things in heaven and the things on earth. 11 In Christ we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will.” Ephesians 1:4-11.

God had a purpose in mind when he called us to himself, and that purpose will not be fulfilled until Jesus returns.

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And finally, we can expect that investment by God to continue throughout our entire lives. The strength to persevere through the trials of life and keep proclaiming his word in spite of those trials will stay with us until Jesus returns.

clip_image012Are you watching for Christ’s return every day of your life? I think we often forget about the fact that his coming is coming. It is no wonder that sometimes we feel powerless to keep going. It is that blessed hope, that expectation of the return which can motivate our perseverance like nothing else.

LORD, help us to fix our eyes on Jesus, so that no matter how hard the race, we can run well, and finish well.

Listen to the audio at Takanini Community Church.

We are… seeking to live out his teaching

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We have been exploring some biblical texts that line up with our vision and mission statement as a church. Here at Takanini Community Church we describe ourselves as “an open family of believers seeking to follow Jesus Christ and live out His teaching while we watch for his return.”

Today’s text helps to clarify what we mean when we talk about living out Christ’s teachings. It is found in Luke’s Gospel, chapter 6 and verses 46-49.

46 “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say? 47 I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. 48 It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against the house, it stands firm because it is well built. 49 But anyone who hears and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins.”

In the last text we looked at in this series, we saw what it meant to be a follower of Jesus Christ. We saw four men on a beach being challenged to let Jesus change them into fishers of men. We saw a large crowd bringing all the broken people they could find to Jesus, so that he could heal them.

We can naturally pick up from those images, and see another aspect of the gospel message in today’s text. Reading the larger context, we see that Jesus had prayed all night on a mountain. When he came down to a level place, he then called the twelve whom he was training as missionaries. Joining them was a large crowd of other disciples, and an even larger crowd of people from all over the surrounding regions, and they had brought all the people with something wrong with them for Jesus to fix. So, there were four groups in all, interacting with Jesus: the twelve apostles, the larger group of disciples, the even larger crowds watching, and the people being helped. The message Jesus taught was directed to all four groups. It was a message about being authentic in one’s Christian walk.

Now, consider this: of all the people in all the groups I just mentioned, no one doubted that Jesus was real. They brought crippled people to him, and he healed them. They brought people attacked by demons and after Jesus did his thing, those people left with their lives back under control. Jesus was the evidence of his own genuineness. But, what about the Christians? What was to be the evidence of their authenticity?

Here is where you will find some differences in answers depending on who you ask. Some Christians come from a background that teaches them to expect God to always heal the sick and do other supernatural things as the sign that their faith is real. I do not doubt God’s power to heal at all. Neither do I doubt that the Holy Spirit gifts certain Christians with supernatural healing gifts, or manifests his power through some other kind of miracle. But I’m not one of those Christians who comes from a background where we always expect God to do that. When I look carefully at this text, I see Jesus authenticating who he is by his miracles. But he teaches the apostles and disciples to authenticate who they are some other way. We Christians authenticate ourselves by living out his teaching – by doing what he commanded us to do.

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Jesus had noticed that there were many who had professed faith in him, and even owned him as their Lord, but their confession had not produced any obedience. There are some groups that emphasize God’s election so much that it sometimes seems like they are saying what you do does not matter. But what you do does matter. It matters to Jesus. Those he chooses choose to obey him. Simply claiming that Jesus is your Lord puts you in the latter two groups, not in the former two groups. Those in the latter two groups have had some awareness of who Jesus is and what he can do. They may even have had some experience of him. He may have even healed them or delivered them from demons. But simple awareness or even a simple experience is not enough. The question Jesus asked challenged them to seal their commitment by becoming part of group two: the larger group of disciples. He had given a number of commands in his gospel sermons. He expected those who were really sincere about calling him Lord to start obeying those commands.

The message for us today is that professing faith is still not enough. We can say we are Christians all we want. We can even attend Christian services, listen to Christian music, back Christian political candidates, and put a fish sticker on our car’s back bumper. Still not enough. So, what is enough? That’s what Jesus teaches here. A life of obedience demonstrates authentic Christianity.

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Jesus describes that life of obedience by comparing our lives to a house built on the solid foundation of a rock. He talks about floodwaters rising and breaking against that house and – nothing happens. In the simile that Jesus is using here, you can tell an authentic Christian life because the trials and troubles which destroy the lives of others cause no destruction in the true Christian’s life. The evidence is … nothing. No cracks, no leaks, no landslides, no roof caving in, no disintegration. The evidence is a lack of negative evidence.

But do not forget the reality that we saw first. Simply professing Christ as your Lord is not the same thing as building your life of the rock. There is only one way to build a Christian life. It is not having good Christian parents. It is not having a good Christian education. It is not learning a solid Christian theology. All of these are good things, but neither is the thing that Jesus identified as building one’s house on a rock. Building my life on the rock is learning and obeying the teachings of Jesus.

The apostles who wrote the epistles of the New Testament picked up on this same building analogy to teach their churches how to live authentically as Christians.

  • — “let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up” (Romans 14:19).
  • — “We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord” (Romans 15:2).
  • — “ (Equipping ministers’ ) responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12).
  • — “So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).
  • — “But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith” (Jude 1:20).

What I find most significant about the way the New Testament epistles read Jesus’ teaching about building our lives is that they all describe the process that Christians do for each other. We’re not used to thinking of it quite like that. I think of building my own life on the rock, and I tend to think of obeying Christ’s teachings personally, remaining pure, not being hypocritical, staying personally devoted to the Bible, etc. But the apostles understood that Jesus actually gave very few commands that his followers can obey individually. In fact, it is in the laboratory of community living that we will find the most challenges to our desire to live out his teachings. So, that is one reason why Christ taught his disciples to form churches. It is in the context of church, family, society where we can build our lives into something stable that will outlast whatever destruction comes our way.

clip_image008Of course, there is a cosmic, future, ultimate sense in which Jesus’ illustration applies as well. The ultimate challenge that we all face is our own mortality. The ultimate floods that sweep down on the house are age and disease, accident or violence. If the atheists are right, and there is no God, we all just die. But if Jesus was right, and God exists, there is a solution to the death problem. Jesus taught in many different ways that there is hope for a second life, an eternal life. How do we guarantee that we will make it into the right side of the judgment? Answer: the same thing we do to authenticate our Christian profession: living out his teachings.

 

 

 

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We have committed ourselves as a church to learning Jesus’ teachings, and applying them to our lives as individuals and as a Christian community. We want to build each other up into a building that will survive the disasters of this life, and make it into the future life. You are invited to join us. We are an open family: there’s always room for more. But if you are serious about joining us, you have to know that we do not compromise the teachings of Jesus. Living out those teachings is the building process itself.

 

Jefferson Vann

Takanini Community Church

Auckland, New Zealand

full-time work

July 2015 (8)“Our commitment to follow Jesus is not like the decision to join a casual club. We are not just members who join by being baptised, pay our annual membership fee and then watch the professionals do the work. No, the Christian life requires letting Jesus change us so that we accomplish what he wants. And it also requires of us all that we make it our full-time work to find ways of bringing the broken in our community to Christ.” –Jefferson Vann